[276] C. J. 8th June 1698.

[277] Burnet.

[278] The following was the strength and distribution of the corps:—

England.—Three troops of Life Guards, and one of Horse-Grenadier Guards, each 180 of all ranks. Two regiments of Horse (Blues, 1st D.G.), each of nine troops, 37 officers, 353 non-commissioned officers and men. Five regiments of Horse (3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th D.G., Macclesfield's), each of six troops, 24 officers, 244 non-commissioned officers and men. Three regiments of Dragoons (Royals, 3rd and 4th Hussars), each of six troops, 24 officers, 259 non-commissioned officers and men. First Guards and Coldstream Guards, each of fourteen companies, 139 officers, 1826 non-commissioned officers and men. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Foot, each of ten companies, 34 officers, 411 men.

Ireland.—Two regiments of Horse (2nd D.G. and 4th D.G.). Three regiments of Dragoons (5th and 6th D., 8th H.). Twenty-one battalions of Foot, 1st Royals (2 battalions), 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 27th. The establishments were on much the same scale as in England.

Scotland.—One troop of Horse Guards. Two regiments of Dragoons (Greys and 7th H.). Scots Guards, Collier's, 21st, 25th, 26th, George Hamilton's, Strathnaver's.

I may add that I have found the greatest difficulty in the compilation of this note. The proclamation regarding England is to be found in the British Museum; that for Ireland is neither in the Museum nor the Record Office, but the list was after much searching disinterred from an Entry Book (H. O. Mil. Entry Book, vol. iii. pp. 374-386). The Scotch establishment I have made up as best I could from various sources, but I cannot vouch for its accuracy.

[279] H.O. Mil. Entry Book, vol. iii. p. 327, May 1698.

[280] Burnet. Even prior to the disbandment one Irish regiment of horse numbered 103 commissioned officers in a total of 490 of all ranks.

[281] See the petition of men disbanded from Macclesfield's Horse. Commons Journals, 18th April, 3rd May 1699.

[282] Petition of Richard Nichols and others of the First Guards. Commons Journals, 6th December 1699.

[283] Petition of John Dorrell, ibid. 9th December 1699. The case had been investigated and dismissed in the previous Parliament.

[284] Commons Journals, 9th January 1699-1700.

[285] Cal. S. P., Dom., 1691, pp. 241, 393.

[286] Here is one instance. It was the rule that clothing should be provided for a regiment according to its establishment on paper, whether the muster-rolls were full or not; the allowance in payment for the same (which was deducted from the pay of the men) being granted to the colonels on the same basis at the close of the financial year. The colonels provided the clothing accordingly early in 1697. In December many regiments were disbanded, and all were much reduced by the Act of Disbandment, when, by the King's just order, all disbanded men were allowed to take away their clothing with them. In April 1698 the colonels applied for the allowance, but were told that the rule had been altered, and that no money would be issued to them except for men actually on the rolls at the time of reduction or disbandment. The colonels, thus defrauded of a large portion of their allowance, were unable to pay for the clothing, and were, of course, sued by the clothiers. It is added that the clothiers would accept in ready-money just half the price which they demanded in treasury-tallies. See the petition of the colonels to the House of Commons in Journals, 28th May and 4th June 1701.

[288] Namur, Luxemburg, Mons, Charleroi, Ath, Oudenarde, Nieuport, Ostend.

[289] 12th, 22nd, 27th.

[290] 1st batt. First Guards, 1st Royals (2 batts.), 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 23rd, 24th. The Guards had been substituted (after careful explanation to Parliament) by William's own direction in lieu of the 9th Foot.

[291] Seven regiments of horse and dragoons, fourteen battalions of foot, fifty-six guns.

[292] Coxe, vol. i. p. 182.

[293] So Quincy. Coxe gives August 25-September 5 as the date, but the difference depends merely on the interpretation of the word investment.

[294] See the description in Kane.

[295] Burnet, Somerville, Tindall.

[296] 180 battalions. At this period a battalion is generally taken at 500, and a squadron at 120 men.

[297] Marlborough's Despatches, vol. i. p. 105.

[299] Despatches, vol. i. p. 198.

[300] Royal Dragoons; 2nd, 9th, 11th, 13th, 17th, 33rd Foot.

[301] Erle's Dragoons. Rooke's, Paston's, Deloraine's, Inchiquin's, Ikerryn's, Dungannon's, and Orrery's Foot. All the foot, except the two first, were raised in Ireland.

[302] Quincy, vol. iv. p. 245. It is said that of seventeen battalions only 1500 men reached the Elector of Bavaria at Donaueschingen.

[303] Thirty-four English field-pieces and four howitzers took part in the famous march to the Danube. There were 2500 horses in all in the train.—Postman, 18th May.

[304] Hare's Journal.

[305] The British cavalry (seven regiments) formed the extreme left of the left wing in the line of battle, with ten British battalions immediately to their right. Four more British battalions formed the extreme left of the infantry of the second line. See p. 445.

[306] These would appear to have been the 1st Guards, 1st Royals (2 batts.), 23rd, and perhaps the 37th.

[307] Their strength would be 1820 men; 130 men from each of fourteen battalions.

[308] 29 officers, 407 men killed; 86 officers, 1031 men wounded. Several details, with a full list of the casualties, will be found in the Postman of July 13, 1704. It is from this source that I draw the account of Mordaunt and Munden.

[309] Despatches, vol. i. p. 381.

[310] Feuquières.

[311] Kane.

[313] 2nd Dragoon Guards, Royal Dragoons, 2nd, 9th, 11th, 13th, 17th, 33rd Foot.

[314] Detachments of the 1st and Coldstream Guards, 13th and 35th of the Line.

[315] The 4th Foot. It had taken its marineship in exchange from another corps.

[316] St. Simon gives a curious account of Lewis's difficulty in arriving at the truth, owing to the general unwillingness to tell him bad news.

[317] It is stated in Records and Badges of the Army that Lillingston's was formed in 1702. But Narcissus Luttrell, Millar, and the Military Entry Books all give the date as 25th March (New Year's Day) 1705.

[318] Quincy's account of this portion of the campaign is, so far as concerns Marlborough, full of falsehoods.

[319] Four British regiments were of this detachment. Two battalions of the 1st Royals, the 3rd Buffs, and the 10th Foot.

[320] Narcissus Luttrell.

[321] It is worth noting that this was the first campaign in which Marlborough and the British took the post of honour at the extreme right of the Allied order of battle.

[322] His camp thus lay across the whole of Wellington's position at Waterloo, from east to west and considerably beyond it to westward, but fronted in the reverse direction.

[324] 2nd Dragoon Guards, 2nd, 9th (exchanged against the prisoners of Blenheim), 17th, 33rd, and Brudenell's Foot.

[325] It is somewhat singular that the first regiment which signally distinguished itself in this first Peninsular War was the 33rd (Duke of Wellington's), which covered itself with honour at the storm of Valenza.

[326] 6th, 34th, 36th, Elliott's, J. Caulfield's (late Pearce's), Gorges's.

[327] Guards (mixed battalion of the 1st and Coldstream), 13th, 35th, Mountjoy's, and four of Marines.

[328] Carleton.

[329] Peterborough's Dragoons; Mark Kerr's, Stanwix's, Lovelace's, Townsend's, Tunbridge's, Bradshaw's, Sybourg's, Price's Foot. Sybourg's was made up of Huguenots.

[330] Marlborough's Despatches, vol. ii. p. 262.

[331] This is the story told in Lamberti.

[332] The ground, though now drained, is still very wet.

[333] I have described the field at some length, since the map given by Coxe is most misleading.

[334] Coxe, by a singular error, makes the left consist exclusively of infantry, in face of Quincy, Feuquières, the London Gazette and other authorities, thereby missing almost unaccountably an important feature in the action.

[335] Apparently the whole of Meredith's brigade, viz.: 1st, 18th, 29th, 37th, 24th, and 10th regiments. The place is still easily identifiable.

[336] Molesworth escaped and was rewarded four years later, at the age of twenty-two, with a regiment of foot.

[338] Despatches, vol. ii. p. 554.

[339] The British regiments regularly employed in the besieging army were the 8th, 10th, and 18th, and Evans's Foot; the Scots Greys, 3rd and 6th Dragoon Guards. The total loss of the Allies was 32 officers and 551 men killed, 83 officers and 1941 men wounded. The 18th Royal Irish lost 15 officers alone, and in one attack over 100 men in half an hour.

[340] 8th Dragoons (now Hussars), 30th and 34th Foot; two Dutch and two Neapolitan battalions.

[341] 2200 of them British, 2nd Dragoon Guards, 2nd, 9th, 17th, 33rd, and Brudenell's Foot.

[342] The total force comprehended 6900 men. Two squadrons each of the 3rd and 4th Dragoons (now Hussars) and seven squadrons of foreigners; the 28th, 29th, Hill's, Watkins's, Mark Kerr's, Macartney's Foot, two battalions of Marines, one of Germans and six of Huguenots.

[343] Colonel Parnell calls this a novelty and approves it; Colonel Frank Russell condemns it. The practice was not proscribed, but it was recognised as extremely hazardous (see Kane's Campaigns, ed. 1757, pp. 69-70), and received its final condemnation at the hands of Napoleon. Campagnes de Turenne.

[346]

No British in the Second Line.

Postboy, 26th June 1707.

[347] Slane's, Brazier's, Delaune's, Jones's, Carles's, all raised in September.

[348] Mixed battalion of Guards, 19th Foot, Prendergast's (late Orrery's).

[349] 16 battalions and 30 squadrons. In these were included the brigades of Sabine, viz., 8th, 18th, 23rd, 37th; of Evans, viz., Orrery's, Evans's and two foreign battalions; and of Plattenberg, which included the Scotch regiments of the Dutch service.

[350] Among them the Royal Scots and Buffs.

[351] That is to say, on the western side of the road from Oudenarde to Deynze.

[352] The ground, though drained and built over about Bevere, seems to have lost little of its original character, and is worth a visit.

[353] British losses: 4 officers and 49 men killed, 17 officers and 160 men wounded.

[354] The force consisted of detachments of the 3rd and 4th Dragoons (now Hussars), 12th, 29th, Hamilton's, Dormer's, Johnson's, Moore's, Caulfield's, Townsend's, Wynne's Foot.

[355] See, for instance, the commendations of Feuquières.

[356] 135 battalions, 260 squadrons.

[357] 122 battalions, 230 squadrons.

[358] These were, according to a contemporary plan (Fricx), the 16th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 24th Foot.

[359] He is claimed as a Guardsman by General Hamilton (Hist. Grenadier Guards), though Millner assigns him to the 16th Foot. This is the only name of a man below the rank of a commissioned officer that I have encountered in any of the books on the wars of Marlborough, not excluding the works of Sergeants Deane and Millner. Littler was deservedly rewarded with a commission.

[360] The Allied order of battle was peculiar. The artillery was all drawn up in front, in rear of it came a first line of 100 squadrons, then a second line of 80 squadrons, then a third line of 104 battalions, with wings of 14 squadrons more thrown out to the right and left rear. Daily Courant, 6th September 1708.

[361] The five English regiments lost about 350 killed and wounded in this assault. This would mean probably from a fifth to a sixth of their numbers. Daily Courant, 6th September 1708.